As a junior at Harry Whittington high School, Ralph
Markley, has enough going on every day without any complications.Things have enough a tendency to happen to
him and he gets blamed a lot.It really
isn’t his fault. He just is in the wrong place at the wrong time and because of
that gets blamed for stuff.

Of course, before now, he had never picked up a
section of pipe that had blood and maybe something more on it. If he hadn’t
tripped over it, he would not have picked it up. Of course, if he hadn’t gone
into the school boiler room in the first place he would not have discovered the
body of Oscar Mullen who worked on maintenance for the school. If none of that
had happened Ralph Markely would not have been standing there near the body
while holding the murder weapon when a number of campus security folks arrived
on scene.

Now that he is in trouble and with accusations
swirling around him it is a good thing that his childhood friend, Shirley
Holmes, is around to help him.Shirley
is not only beautiful and smart as Ralph has started to notice, but she is also
is sure that she is related to the fictional Sherlock Holmes. Because of that
belief she is sure the case of who killed Oscar and why won’t be solved unless
she, Ralph, and their friends Reed and Franny uncover the truth. Before long
the kids are at work and the suspect list grows longer in a delightful read.

The
Girl Who Wanted To Be Sherlock Holmes is a fun young
adult read that also works well for adults. Especially the secondary storyline
of Ralph’s father who writes men’s adventure books that discerning readers
realize are a bit more literary than they appear by covers and titles. Interesting
characters, a case with a lot of suspects, and interesting secondary storylines
make this another excellent read from Texas author Bill Crider. One worthy of
your attention just like all his other books.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

As we have learned the hard way with my son's store that Amazon closed a month ago over three customers who filed multiple complaints over allegedly defective products they still have not returned, having all your eggs in the Amazon basket is a very bad idea long term. They are still reviewing the situation I fully detailed here. The only reason I am an Amazon Associate after what they have done to Karl is simply because we need every single penny. Medical debt and other money issues continue to worsen and Amazon's actions with Karl's store have really hurt us badly.

Amazon can and will turn off the pipeline any time they want. While e-books and Amzon have clearly helped a great number of authors--including myself-- there are no assurances what they will do in the future as they control more and more of the publishing landscape as well as the retail world.

In case you are interested Karl is now on e-Bay. Anything in his store at Amazon is available --despite their posted nonsense--- and some of those items have made it to e-Bay. Anything else that has not gotten there yet can be ordered directly from him if you so desire. He often passes on the savings when folks order direct.

I have written before here about how I go about writing a review in longhand, Scott or sometimes Sandi (if she feels well enough) types it for me, and then I go back over the review and edit. I think doing things that way works out for a better review.

As part of that editing process after I am happy with what I wrote, I usually go read a bunch of reviews to see what other folks have said about the material. If a number of folks mention the same thing-- as happened recently with Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child that was reviewed here-- I consider whether or not to mention it in my review. I also go poking around to see what else is out there on the book. If there is a back story I always read that.

Such was the case here by way of Ed Gorman's excellent blog. One you should be reading if you are not already. I found on his blog a post written by Bill Crider back in late April 2011 explaining the backstory behind The Girl Who Wanted To Be Sherlock Holmes. You ought to go read it and can do so here.

Back when I was doing Sample Sunday deals here on the blog, Bill contributed
Chapter One of the book and you can read that here if you like.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Up this weekend in Kings River Life Magazine﻿ reviews &
giveaways of 4 more Penguin mysteries- "Marked Down for Murder" by
Josie Belle, "Murder of a Needled Knitter" by Denise Swanson﻿, "Nightmares
Can Be Murder": A Dream Club Mystery by Mary Kennedy, and "The Wolfe
Widow": A Book Collector Mystery by Victoria Abbott﻿ http://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/more-september-penguin-mysteries/

For my monthly newspaper book
review column in the Senior News
Newspaper, I usually make sure to choose one fiction and one nonfiction
book in the hopes of interesting more readers. For September I went with The
Contractors by local area resident Harry
Hunsicker
who I have been a huge fan of since
reading his first book, Still
River. For the non-fiction book I went with Playing
with Stencils: Exploring Repetition, Pattern, and Personal DesignsbyAmy Rice. For a number of years before
Sandi had cancer she did a lot of stencil work. These days her eyes as well as
her hand/eye coordination won’t allow it, but she still looks at the books when
I bring them home for use in the column and on the blog. Longer reviews of both
were run here on the blog earlier this year and can easily be found by clicking
on the above book titles.

Included
below are the relevant book covers for my September 2014 column…

The
Contractors: A Thriller

Harry
Hunsicker

Thomas
& Mercer (Amazon)

ISBN-13: 978-1477808726

E-Book
(available in paperback and audio)

514
Pages

Anyone who has read the Lee Henry Oswald series
by Harry Hunsicker knows that the author does not write the Dallas Chamber of
Commerce ad copy type of books. Bad things happen to all on the streets of
Dallas in his books. The Contractors: A Thriller raises
that bar to all new levels.

While nearly everyone has heard of the private
contractors working in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere overseas, they also are
working here at home. Jon Cantrell and Piper are contractors for the DEA as
well as being romantically involved. As the book opens, they are on the trail
of Lisa, a missing 14 year old teenager. Hired by a retired crooked cop named
Sinclair they need to find the girl and get her back home. Not only will that
get them paid, it will allow them to focus on another job where their violent
skills will be put to the test.

Those who expect a serious mystery in the style of
the excellent Lee Henry Oswald series will be disappointed in The
Contractors: A Thriller. This is a fast paced action orientated novel
where nearly everyone has very few redeeming qualities. A thriller in every
sense of the word where character development is limited and told in occasional
bursts of backstory to give readers a break from the frenetic forward pace. The
Contractors: A Thriller by Harry Hunsicker takes readers on a violent
and bloody rampage from one end of Texas to the other in a read that constantly
twists and turns in ways that should keep readers hooked to the very end.

Playing
with Stencils: Exploring Repetition, Pattern, and Personal Designs

Amy
Rice

Quarry
Books (Quayside Publishing Group)

ISBN#
978-1-59253-829-4

Paperback

144
Pages

Playing with Stencils: Exploring
Repetition, Pattern, and Personal Designs by Amy Rice features variety
in design of others while teaching readers how to go about creating their own
personal touches in various projects. Along with plenty of information there
are a number of photographs depicting the various ideas covered in the book.

Broken into three main
sections along with several resource sections the book features projects that
go from floor to table and runs the gamut. While skill level is not addressed
in this 145 page book it is clear that like any other art form patience and
practice will be needed to perfect the image you are trying to create. This is
a good resource featuring plenty of colorful projects to help you get started
while also providing plenty of inspiration.

Friday
means Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti
Abbott.
Having read and reviewed A Vampire NamedFred by Bill Crider last week it seemed appropriate to do the second in the
series this week. Like the previous book this one is a fun read that works for all ages making it
very much worth your time. Seems to me the author should start working on the
rest of the creatures of the night series with A Zombie Named Bruce coming next….

A Werewolf Named Wayne

Readers who have read A Vampire Named Fred are
well aware that Hermie and Al helped Fred and his assistant, Carl, with a
couple of issues. While Kermit felt it wasn’t easy being green, being a vampire
in these times of extreme prejudice caused by bogus Hollywood movies isn’t easy.
Not to mention the fact that cats don’t like vampires and will come by the
hundreds to the home and yowl in the yard. Neighbors don’t like that sort of
thing.

Thanks to Hermie and Al’s friendship and efforts, things
are far better for Fred and Carl these days. So much so they are moving to
Vegas and that means the house has been sold again. Al and Hermie are really
going to miss Fred and Carl. But, people as well as the creatures of the night
move on when circumstances change. Fred has made it clear to the new owner how
helpful the boys were and that is a good thing. The new owner is Wayne and he
is a werewolf. Good thing the boys are in 7th grade now as he needs
their help with a far more complicated problem than Fred ever had.

While not as humorous as the previous book, this is
another very good read that will appeal to both adults and kids alike. Wayne’s
issues are far different than Fred and his concerns are far different. With characters
and expectations firmly established in the preceding book, A Werewolf Named Wayne
focuses primarily on his unique situation and the help he needs. The result is
a very good fun read that keeps the adventure going.

A
Case of Noir by Paul D. Brazil takes readers on a
dark and twisted road through five chapters. Even though each one is a fairly
contained short story, the five chapters link together to form a complex tale
featuring Luke Case.

Except his name isn’t really Luke Case. Not that
readers know that as the first installment, “Red Esperanto” opens. Instead, readers
know it is Warsaw in winter and our narrator prefers Jack Daniels with Coke
only after he is so drunk already that he shouldn’t be drinking at all, a Ukrainian
hooker by the name of Tatiana, and hanging out with a fellow ex-pat by the name
of Sean Bradley. Sean has his reasons why he drinks heavily as does Luke and their
lives are going to be intertwined as the months and pages pass.

It is while with Sean in their favorite watering
hole, “Rory’s Irish Pub” that the stunning C. J. walked in very late one night.
Known as Crazy Jola, she is the wife of Robert Mohawk who is a mid-level a
gangster of some repute. Despite being warned off about his reputation as well
as hers, Luke manages to talk her into a drink and eventually quite a lot more.

Considering his past, he should have stopped while
he was ahead. A Case of Noir is a complicated stylistic read full of visual
imagery that moves across Europe adding and dropping people and clues as it
goes. While Luke Case has a fake name and a fake cover he has his vices no
matter what and that means he leaves a trail in his wake. A complicated dark
trail as strikingly depicted on the cover with the maze and one that isn’t at
all easy to figure out from start to finish.

Originally published in the excellent anthology, On
Dangerous Ground: Stories of Western Noir, Bill Crider’s very good
and very dark tale “Piano Man” is now available as a short story. Somewhere
near Fort Laramie in the year 1880 there sits a place known as the “Bad Dog
Saloon.” It is the home for a man who forsook nearly everything else because of
the booze. He is known as the “piano man” and most don’t pay any attention to
him in the corner of the saloon as their focus is on drinking, gambling, and the
whores.

Then, in the wake of a card game that went very
wrong for at least one of the participants he got an idea. It wasn’t a particularly
good idea, but it took over and slowly became an obsession. An obsession, much
like his obsession with alcohol, is going to change everything.

Jack Reacher was on the west coast when it happened.
A sniper, loose in Paris, took a shot at the President of France. The shot was
fired from 1400 yards out by someone on an apartment balcony. Some kind of new glass
held saving the life of the politician. As the situation was investigated and
the reality of just how difficult a shot it was to pull off a list of potential
snipers with that kind of skill level was drawn up by those who should know.

It has been determined that several snipers from
around the world are the best of the best for this particular situation. One sniper
in particular is an American that that Reacher knows well having put him in
jail a number or years ago. As the intelligence services of the various countries
are brought in to chase their sniper in advance of the upcoming G8 summit in
England, old contracts of Reacher’s put him in to help with this as he owes a
favor to one of those heavily involved. Just one of the ways-- and there are several--
that this situation is Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel.

Reacher is back and in good form in this latest installment
of the long running series. Duplicity is rampart among all involved as there
are many hidden agendas are at work in this complex thriller. Reacher spends a
lot of time talking to people by way of the Socratic method to sift through the
conflicting information and figure out multiple situations as they arise
throughout the entire book. This is done through page after page of dialogue in
a way that is far different stylistically than earlier books in the series.

In fact the entire novel, while good, is far different
stylistically and not just in terms of dialogue than earlier in the series. Legendary
for his traveling light with only a toothbrush--if that-- resulting in needing
to buy clothes to replace whatever he is wearing, this Reacher hardly ever buys
clothes. In previous novels, Reacher was always interested in the girl and
almost always got her. In this case there is zero sexual attraction at work as
he acts more like her grandfather or mentor.Considering the age of his parents Reacher could be her grandfather and
yet he can still fight like the Reacher of old in the few fight scenes
scattered throughout the novel. One of which immediately puts the reader in
mind of the classic movie Bond villain, Jaws.

Reacher, often dealing with characters that are little
more than stereotypes, when the time comes is still busting heads and/or various
limbs while taking names as the chase takes him across the globe. He certainly
isn’t mellowing with age and gets the job done-- even when the odds are stacked
against him by both friend and foe. While not nearly as good as early ones in the
series, Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child is a good one that
keeps reader interest page after page and is certainly much better than his
last couple of books.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Again the local media is reporting various stories regarding banned books in the local area districts. I'm tempted to get up on the old soapbox and point out the stupidity of all of this and the fact that maybe one should read what their kids read and discuss it with them, but I have a feeling anyone that reads this blog is part of the choir pointing out the stupidity.

THE PAYING GUESTS Sarah Waters Yvonne Klein
When Frances Wray lets rooms to a married couple, she only expects much
needed revenue, but her life and that of the Barbers becomes closely
intertwined.

BLIND MOON ALLEY John Florio Diana Borse
Jersey Leo is an albino, a man for Aaron Garvey who protected him from
bullying through school. Garvey escapes from prison just before he is to
be executed and now the cops are beating on anyone who knows him; Jersey
is, of course, hiding him.

THE CHILDREN ACT Ian McEwan Yvonne Klein
High Court Judge Fiona Maye, who presides over family court cases, must
decide whether the adolescent son of Jehovah's Witnesses may be
transfused against his and his parents' wishes in order to treat his
leukemia. Her judgement affects not only the boy, but herself as well.

REMAINS OF INNOCENCE J. A. Jance Cathy Downs
A young man with cognitive disabilities is found murdered and tortured,
then the medical examiner of Cochise County is discovered in his home,
tortured to death.

MURMURS OF INSANITY Gerrie Ferris Finger Sharon Mensing
Dru helps one of Lake's relatives who is a person of interest in a
college student's disappearance and potential murder while a performance
art troupe wreaks havoc on the investigation

SORROW BOUND David Mark Barbara Fister
It's hot in Hull and Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy has a feeling that
the exceptionally brutal murder of a middle-aged woman may be just the
first.

MURDER IN RETRIBUTION Ann Cleeland PJ Coldren
Newlywed Detective Constable Kathleen Doyle adjusts to her new marital
status and pregnancy while working on a very complicated case which may
or may not involve her husband, Chief Inspector Michael Acton.

THE LONG WAY HOME Louise Penny Ann Pearson
When Peter Morrow fails to return from his yearlong separation to his
wife, Clara, she enlists the help of Armand Gamache in finding him on a
trip that leads to the Lower North Shore of the St Lawrence River and
beyond.

THE HEIST David Silva Anne Corey
When his friend discovers a brutal murder, Gabriel Allon is recruited to
track down not only the killer but also a stolen masterpiece and in
doing so uncovers a money trail that leads directly to one of the
world's worst dictators.

EVIL IN RETURN Weyman Jones Sharon Mensing
A woman is kidnapped by a Native American seeking to avenge historical
wrongs.

HAUNTED Randy Wayne White Megan Sweeney
Hannah Smith is asked to help prove development property is stigmatized
and unmarketable.

MARGERY ALLINGHAM'S MR. CAMPION’S FAREWELL Completed by Mike Ripley Jim
Napier
Mike Ripley completes an unfinished MS left starring Albert Campion that
takes him from a small village to Monte Carlo.

THE LATE SCHOLAR Jill Paton Walsh Caryn St Clair
A college in Oxford is faced with selling a treasured manuscript or
financial ruin. As the college's new Visitor, Lord Peter is summoned to
help resolve the issue.

PRISON NOIR Joyce Carol Oates, ed Lourdes Venard
A collection of 15 short stories presents a new perspective on prison
literature from those who know what it's like on the inside.

CONVERSION Katherine Howe Ben Neal
The girls at St Joan's boarding school are exhibiting symptoms like the
girls in early 18th century Salem that resulted in the witch trials.
What is going on?

We post more than 900 new reviews a year -- all of them are archived on
the site -- as well as a new interview with a top author every issue.

My short fiction has appeared in
magazines such as Lynx Eye, Starblade, Show and Tell, and The Writer's
Post Journal among others and online at such places as Mouth Full Of
Bullets, Crime And Suspense, Mysterical-e, and others.

Finally back home as they were running way behind. At this point, things seem relatively stabale so they have cut back her dosages on the steroids and a couple of other things. By doing this, it should help with her diabetes numbers so that just maybe--assuming insurance does not cause more issues--she can finally have the much needed PET Scan.

Extra blood was taken from her today so they can run some extra tests to look at various issues. The IVIG infusion went well once it goits started so that was also a good sign.

As it stands right now, we wait to hear on the PET Scan and her next appointment is a month from now on October 17 when she will have another full workup and IVIG infusion.

Sandi also got a real kick out of the fact that all of her hats she donated have again been taken and according to the nurses they were a huge hit.

Friday
means Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott. Having just read this
earlier in the week the book seemed a perfect choice for FFB this week. A Vampire Named Fred by Bill Crider is
a fun read that works for all ages making it very much worth your time.

A
Vampire Named Fred

The very run down house next door had been on the
market for about 15 years when it finally sold. Al, who is 12, loved exploring
the old place, but his mom worried about rotted out floors, broken stairs,
snakes in the basement, and the bugs and dirt. While his parents would not buy
the old place like he wanted them to, at least his Mom never forbade him from
going over there. He had loved going
over there and poking around as long as he could remember and often his buddy
Hermie went over there with him.

So, Al wasn’t exactly thrilled when the house
suddenly sold. Hermie was convinced nothing good for them would happen with the
new owners. Hermie was sure the new owners had to be a 100 or something to want
to live in that old place and he was sure they would not have grandkids or
anything. They probably even hate kids, according to Hermie. Neither one of the
boys counted on “A Vampire Named Fred” who needs their help and friendship.

Originally published in print on 1990 and released
in electronic format in 2011, this book aimed at the middle school aged crowd
is a very fun read. Not only does it play a bit with the vampire legend which
Hollywood movies got very wrong according to Fred, the book also mixes in
cultural references that will appeal to the adult reader. For example, Elvis (or
somebody doing one heck of an impersonation) works down at the local Tastee
Daree Freezee where they sell soft ice cream, burgers, and more. He still sings
a bit and dances in his blue suede shoes while filling orders. While small things
like that may fly by the kids, adults will get a chuckle or two over that and
quite a number of other items in this fun story that reminds all readers that
being a little different is okay.

“A Vampire Named Fred” is a fun read for all ages by
legendary author Bill Crider. It has a sequel titled “A Werewolf Named Wayne.”

Back home from the hospital as Sandi had an appointment with her endocrinologist today. While better than she was, Sandi is still nowhere near where she needs
to be numbers wise not just for her health but the long delayed Pet
Scan.The overall trend of her blood sugar numbers lowering seems to have basically leveled out as we thought. So, the insulin dosage is being raised a little more, but Sandi is having weigh gain and other issues related to the insulin.

Under consideration is the idea of adding some new medications to the mix in the hopes of lowering her numbers. However, that is being delayed for now as Sandi has an IVIG infusion Friday and a ton of blood work as the cancer docs plan on doing the tests to see if the IVIG is working. There were concerns that adding new drugs to her cocktail could throw off those results.

So, for now, she keeps doing what she is doing and fingers crossed that the downward numbers trend will start again.

Patrick Ohl is back this week for Friday Forgotten
Books hosted by Patti Abbott. This week he is reviewing TheToll House Murder by Anthony Wynne.

“Anthony Wynne” was the pseudonym of physician
Robert McNair Wilson, who seems to have obsessed himself with impossible crimes
of all sorts, though he never achieved the status of authors like John Dickson
Carr or Clayton Rawson. And his book The
Toll House Murder shows all too clearly why that is so.

The
Toll House Murder begins promisingly, as
we learn of the murder of Sir Andrew Burke, the wealthy man in charge of a
famous shipping company. The circumstances are bizarre— Sir Andrew walks into a
toll house to ask the man in charge to let him through. He re-enters his car
and passes through the toll, but after a couple of hundred yards, the car
swerves and tips over. As a result, the doors jam and have to be forced open. Sir
Andrew is lying inside, stabbed through the heart— but there is no knife in the
car, no other passenger, and no footprints anywhere in the snow around the car!

While this initial situation is
intriguing, the interest is sucked out of the story pretty rapidly as we meet
our cast of characters. And such a memorable bunch they are! I particularly
remember… um… actually, I don’t remember anyone at all. This isn’t a joke- I
literally don’t remember any of the characters. I don’t even remember the
murderer’s name! I just remember what function some faceless cut-outs played in
the plot. They have all the personality and charm of cardboard (though, on
second thought, that would be an insult to a useful packaging material). I just
finished reading the book not 10 minutes ago. That’s a bad sign.

And thus we get another problem with
this book: while the plot may be interesting, it is so poorly paced that any
interest is quickly removed. After the initial murder, we get about 70 pages
where nothing happens. After this, we get a murder, and a few pages later an
attempted murder. Nothing happens for another 70 pages or so, after which we
get another murder, and, a few pages later, another murder. Nothing much
happens for 30 pages or so until the detective, Dr. Hailey, pulls a new plot
thread out of his hat for no reason at all and goes to explore it, thus proving
his omniscience once and for all. By the end, I wasn’t even interested in the
plot. I was just frustrated and trying to get through a tiresome work.

“Tiresome” describes the writing well.
Wynne’s writing style is a real chore to struggle through, and I’m just happy
to be alive right now. At best, his characters behave like second-rate actors
performing a second-rate Victorian melodrama, and they have a tendency to
monologue about nothing in particular. For instance, after Dr. Hailey brings up
a new plot thread out of nowhere, we are treated to this lovely monologue from
the wife of a dead man:

"He
died for us!" she exclaimed in a voice in which ecstasy and revenge were
mingled. "He laid down his life for us. Oh, sir, he was a good man and a
fine one. Listen, the night before he died he talked a long while with our boy.
John told him to go straight and tell the truth and love his mother. There were
tears in his eyes, believe me, sir. Oh, sir, I didn't know then that the
medicine was beginning to take effect on him. 'You're tired, John,' I said. But
he wouldn't have it. He got up, after the boy went to bed, and walked about the
room. Like he used to walk on his bridge. 'It's been a hard fight," he
said, 'but I've won. And I want you to know that, my girl. I'm a happy man this
night and I haven't known happiness for years.'”

That monologue treats us to much of the
flaws in this book: melodramatic monologues no living human would ever spout,
tiresome clichés at every corner, and (worst of all) a complete lack of any
sense of humour whatsoever. More than that: there’s no individuality or
personality in this work. It feels like a robot wrote this, or perhaps it was
all recycled from other works. Either way, the writing is coldly impersonal and
unpleasant—you don’t get any sense of the author’s personality at all. Reading
more than one Wynne per month is most likely hazardous to your health.

Incidentally, there is more than one
impossible crime involved—there are two. The second is pretty quickly
explained, though, and very obvious from the start. A policeman is randomly
murdered out of nowhere in front of Dr. Hailey’s eyes. He went outside to see
if it was snowing and had the back of his skull crushed in by a heavy
instrument— the blow was so heavy that it glanced off his skull and smashed
into the wall, destroying the brickwork. But there were no footprints
whatsoever in the snow. The melodrama is
milked to the extreme:

He
came to the room. At the sight of the body on the floor he drew back with a cry
of dismay.

“Poor
old George.”

He
bent down and looked at the shattered head. When he rose again the blood was
pale in his face.

“If
I have to spend the rest of my life doing it, sir,” he exclaimed, “I’ll find
the swine who has done this. One of the best lads in the force.” He added:
“This time, anyhow, the snow will tell us something.”

Whoah, someone recovered from his shock
quickly! You might as well have replaced that last sentence with “What’s for
dinner?” It’s not just melodramatic, it’s inconsistent as well! Oh, and by the
way, you never found out what the dead police officer’s name was until he was
killed. Gotta love that character development. The explanation for the impossible
crime, as I said, is obvious, but it also doesn’t seem to make sense. I can’t
go into details here, but even though physics and I are notorious enemies, my
knowledge of it is enough to make me seriously question the mechanics of the
murder. Wynne’s explanation was unclear about a point or else his killer just
got extremely lucky. Possibly both.

Which brings me full circle to the first
murder— of all the cheek! This killer is the luckiest son-of-a-gun since the
culprit in Seeing is Believing! The
solution is technically fair, and yet I don’t whatsoever recall the key piece
of evidence that clinches the method. In fact, a far simpler variation is
proposed just pages before, and is rejected by the detective. Why? I’ll
reconstruct the reason with some dialogue:

Inspector: "Blimey, if Bob didn't
have the third onion at the time... it can only mean the butler was the
killer!"

Detective: "Impossible! Absurd! The
butler could never be the killer!"

Inspector: "Why not?"

Detective: "Because I said
so."

Inspector: "Good point. I never
thought about it that way."

Oh, come on! How lazy can you get? Give us an actual reason! I’m sick of
detectives who can pick and choose their deductions at will—if you’re going to
reject an alternative hypothesis, give us a reason! (This, by the way, is a
major strength of R. Austin Freeman’s The
Eye of Osiris— Dr. Thorndyke never just says “Because I said so”, he
explains all his deductions thoroughly. Though sometimes they might get
long-winded, it’s overall far more satisfying an approach that this one.)

To sum up, The Toll House Murder is a chore to get through. The author has no
discernible sense of humour or personality, and the writing style is just
atrocious. The impossible crimes have their points of interest, but are overall
major disappointments, making this book a certain entry in the Hall of Shame of
books I’ve read this year. By the end, it got overbearingly tiresome. Why
didn’t Wynne achieve the popularity of Carr? This book is a textbook
illustration. It really says a lot about an author’s writing style when I can
honestly say it left me pining for some Freeman Wills Crofts. Crofts’ writing,
at the very least, was entertaining.

Kevin's Corner

Sandi's Cancer Fight Is Over

Thank you for your prayers, thoughts, and support for the past six years plus as Sandi did everything she could to be here with all of us. She is now free and not hurting anymore. I am still trying to pay off her past treatments at Medical City Dallas Hospital as well as at Texas Oncology. While the hospital can't handle direct donations, if you can help and would prefer to donate directly, please contact Debra, the financial counselor at TEXAS ONCOLOGY in SUITE 220 of Building D at Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas, Texas. We thank you for your prayers, thoughts, and support for the past six years plus as Sandi did everything she could to be here with all of us.